Time to Pay Up: Campaign Puts Japan’s Uniqlo on Blast

Uniqlo store
UJ talks with the organizer of a campaign that seeks to make Uniqlo pay back wages to Indonesian workers whom they say the company abandoned.

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When it comes to fast fashion in Japan, Uniqlo is the undisputed king. Uniqlo was ranked the most popular fast-fashion brand in Japan in a March 2020 survey. Runners-up were Shimamura and Uniqlo subsidiary GU. From manga and Haruki Murakami collaborations to outfitting Team Sweden for the Beijing 2022 Olympics, Uniqlo’s certainly made their mark at home and abroad.

Despite Uniqlo’s popularity, they don’t have an entirely squeaky-clean reputation. Clean Clothes Campaign is an organization devoted to protecting workers in garment production and promoting ethical fashion. They’ve recently launched a Japanese-language Twitter account to spread more awareness about human rights violations in the clothing industry. And their targets include Uniqlo and other Japanese companies.

Take, for example, CCC’s #PayUpUniqlo campaign. Uniqlo, the org says, owes about 620 million yen (roughly $54,300 USD) in severance pay to over 2,000 Indonesian workers. The workers, they say, lost their jobs when Uniqlo suddenly shut down the Jaba Garmindo factory in 2015. A group of former workers traveled to Japan in 2018 to plead their case. Despite their protests outside Uniqlo offices, they made little headway.

Johnson Yeung, a journalist and regional campaigner for Clean Clothes Campaign, was kind enough to speak briefly with UJ. He addressed Uniqlo and Japan’s failure to address human rights violations in garment manufacturing.

Clean Clothes Campaign日本公式アカウント on X (formerly Twitter): “3年前の10月、ユニクロのサプライチェーンで働いていた労働者たちがインドネシアから来日し、#ビックロ の前で退職金の支払いを求めて抗議活動を行った。3年たった今もユニクロは支払いに応じておらず、約2000人に対し6.2億円分の退職金が未払いのままとなっている。#payyourworkers pic.twitter.com/GdliamvlUE / X”

3年前の10月、ユニクロのサプライチェーンで働いていた労働者たちがインドネシアから来日し、#ビックロ の前で退職金の支払いを求めて抗議活動を行った。3年たった今もユニクロは支払いに応じておらず、約2000人に対し6.2億円分の退職金が未払いのままとなっている。#payyourworkers pic.twitter.com/GdliamvlUE

No Responsibility to Pay

Uniqlo store
Picture: Shutterstock

Unfortunately, not much progress has been made since 2018. A mediation meeting between Uniqlo and the workers a couple years ago failed to produce results. As of 2021, Johnson says Uniqlo remains firm in their belief that they have no responsibility to their former workers. He hopes UN Women, which Uniqlo donates to, will listen to their case and take the allegations seriously. He also pointed out the hypocrisy of Uniqlo supporting the International Labor Organization’s Better Work Indonesia program while ignoring the plight of their mostly female workers:

“It doesn’t make sense for Uniqlo to exploit 2,000 women [workers] on one hand, and engage in philanthropy activities with UN Women at the same time, and also to get the credibility for supporting women’s rights.”

(Along the same lines, we should note that Uniqlo is one of Japan’s few female-led companies.)

Uniqlo is no stranger to scrutiny over alleged human rights violations. Earlier this year, Uniqlo was one of the brands under suspicion of using forced Uyghur labor in China’s Xinjiang region. Around the time of the investigation, Uniqlo dropped a commercial featuring an LGBTQ+ couple that created positive buzz. As noteworthy as it was, one can’t help but wonder if Uniqlo aimed to deflect attention from negative press.

Exploitation At Home and Abroad

Violations in textile supply chains are just as prevalent on Japanese soil. CCC has also criticized Japan’s Technical Internship Training Program (TITP). The program employs migrant workers in various industries, including textile, to fill the workplace void left by an aging population. According to a CCC report, many textile workers end up trapped in debt bondage. They work and live in grueling, inhumane conditions for lower than average wages. Poor sanitation protocols have long been an issue in these factories. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated those conditions. (However, as far as Johnson is aware, there have been no reports of outbreaks in these factories.)

Johnson says Japanese clothing brands are a “hard nut to crack”. One reason is their tendency to harass civil society groups trying to hold them accountable. He mentioned Uniqlo has threatened defamation lawsuits against civil society groups. That includes a Japanese non-profit youth organization that interviewed Uniqlo workers on their poor working conditions.

Many of these groups operate with limited funds and can’t challenge a corporation like Uniqlo in court. A lack of stringent government or third-party oversight leaves the responsibility of change up to the worker. But that’s just the problem, according to Johnson. “When you require the workers to present [a] very concrete evidence… or documentation[s] of their working conditions, you are actually putting someone who is in a very vulnerable position into an even more vulnerable situation.”

An Incentive to Improve

Picture: Shutterstock

In 2017, the government extended further protections for workers in the TITP. Alas, strict enforcement of the laws is lacking, and Johnson called the current measures in place inadequate.

On November 5, the Japan Textile Association signed a new memorandum with the International Labor Organization. It pledged to eliminate human rights violations in Japanese textile supply chains. They’ll draft guidelines to go into effect by July 2022. But Johnson says these need to be more concrete than previous plans for any progress to be made.

Johnson believes a strong “checks and balance mechanism” operated by a third party will ensure corporations at the upper and lower tiers are behaving. Japan has long been a prominent “power in exerting economic pressure and influence in the region”. This, says Johnson, it can – and should – care more about its reputation overseas. Johnson mentioned South Korea as a prime example of a country being proactive. The country sent delegations to inspect Korea-owned factories in Indonesia following allegations of human rights violations.

“I think [the] Japanese government not only have a responsibility to work out a plan, [but] they also have an incentive in improving their reputation as a responsible investor, so that they can out-compete investors from Taiwan or China.”

Change is Possible

So what can consumers in Japan do? Aside from spreading awareness through social media on ethical fashion, how consumers voice their expectations to brands carries weight. Johnson brought up a UK consumer survey in which 31% of respondents cited a brand’s commitment to social justice and improving human rights as a driving factor influencing their buying preferences:

“If such a survey is also done in Japan, and let’s say if 15% of the consumers said that they’re in line with [those] principle[s], that might create a huge impact to the industry, because now brands will say, ‘Okay, how am I going to accommodate or attract this 15% of consumers?'”

In short, it’s not just one individual or petition. Only a collective voice for change will force Japanese clothing industries to improve workers’ lives in their supply chains.

Check out Clean Clothes Campaign and their new Japanese Twitter account to stay informed about ongoing campaigns and ethical fashion in Japan.

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